this exploration delves into the intricate tapestry of lviv and wrocław, two pivotal cities in east-central europe, examining how myth, memory, and migration have shaped their identities and trajectories from the late 19th century to the present day.
these metropolises, once forged in diversity and shaped by shifting dynastic powers, ultimately coalesced into more defined national entities by the late 1800s, yet retained their characteristic multi-ethnic populations. the post-world war ii era, however, saw them forcibly reconfigured into distinct ethno-national paradigms.
while extensive historical documentation exists for both cities, this analysis seeks to illuminate the individual experiences and lived realities that underpin their complex pasts and presents.
the core theme here is how the inhabitants of, and individuals connected to, lviv and wrocław have utilized and continue to employ myth, memory, and migration to navigate the inherent contradictions within their historical contexts.
rather than offering a linear chronological account, the focus is on synchronic "snapshots" at various historical junctures. this approach prioritizes communal practices at the grassroots level and the everyday experiences and attitudes of ordinary people, moving away from grand narratives of large-scale political, military, cultural, or economic history.
consequently, the methods and sources employed lean towards micro-history, emphasizing oral testimonies, memoirs, direct observations, questionnaires, popular culture manifestations, and journalistic writings.
it is no accident that lviv and wrocław serve as compelling case studies for this type of perspective.
their modern histories are marked by frequent and often abrupt transformations: a shift from multi-ethnic pasts to more homogenous presents, a change in geographical significance from borderlands to central positions within new constitutional frameworks, and transitions from sites of intense conflict and destruction to centers of rapid development and reconstruction.
generations of individuals who have lived through or are still affected by these profound historical changes face the challenge of making sense of them not only in broad social, economic, and political terms, but also as individuals situated within their specific time and place.
in both cities, myth, memory, and migration emerge as critical tools for this process of accommodation and comprehension.
the essays compiled herein share a common thread: a keen interest in these very categories. crucially, they examine these themes through the lens of less conventional source materials, offering privileged insights into the histories of these two east-central european cities as experienced and represented from the ground up.
the collection brings together scholars, many of whom hail from the region and represent a younger generation of historians, whose research interests converge on these topics and the methodologies required to address them. the result is a compilation that underscores the agency of the residents of lviv and wrocław, portraying them not merely as passive recipients of historical events, but as active participants in shaping their own trajectories.
agency and narrative in urban transformation
by focusing on themes such as migration, the formation of myths and memories, grassroots politics, cultural practices, and artistic representations of the urban environment, this work bestows agency upon individuals who might otherwise be relegated to the background as mere subjects of historical forces.
the contributions collectively highlight how the populations of lviv and wrocław, situated at the epicenter of often brutal and volatile 20th-century european history, not only reacted to but also actively molded the course of events. actions like departing from or returning to a place, establishing charitable organizations, staging theatrical or poetic performances, filming, and documenting the city, or choosing particular ways to remember its past, are not just simple reactions.
they are, in fact, instrumental in shaping historical outcomes by generating the very facts and perceptions that inform future political actions.
this constructive force is particularly significant in cities like lviv and wrocław, which have undergone radical political shifts and necessitated periods of reinvention at frequent intervals throughout the 20th century.
the analyses presented in this volume make this clear across all chapters. the immediate subject of study might be cognitive, as in the case of myth and memory, or artistic, as seen in theater, film, and literature, or it may pertain to specific facets of local history, such as the activities of charitable and communal organizations.
while these are valid on one level, these topics also acquire broader historical significance given the unprecedented political, economic, and social transformations experienced by lviv and wrocław between the late 19th century and the present.
this shared analytical perspective on the history of lviv and wrocław also serves to highlight significant differences between them.
for instance, while westward population transfers occurred, the destinations for these forcibly relocated groups were remarkably diverse, encompassing newly acquired western territories and other regions of post-world war ii poland. the notion of a special historical link between lviv and wrocław, to some extent, has itself become a myth.
upon closer examination, the almost proverbial parallels between the two cities often falter or reveal themselves to be partial and largely structural, prompting discussions about their mythic content and encouraging examinations from sometimes divergent, rather than strictly parallel, viewpoints.
consider, for example, the fundamental differences in the character, size, and settlement patterns of the jewish and polish population segments in and around wrocław compared to the jewish and ukrainian communities of lviv and its surrounding region.
wrocław's population growth outpaced that of lviv in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a trend driven by economic developments in both cities and their respective hinterlands. lviv, in contrast, served as a major hub for large-scale pre-world war i emigration, a phenomenon not as pronounced in wrocław.
the list of overt differences is extensive, indicating that any perceived parallels between the cities are not rooted in the specifics of their historical development but rather in structural similarities. these structural commonalities are particularly evident in the large-scale population transfers that affected both urban centers and in their similarly discontinuous and fractured experiences across four distinct constitutional orders over approximately four generations—from the pre-world war i imperial era through unstable and ultimately failed interwar states, followed by communist rule, and finally post-communist transitions.
contrasting narratives and enduring legacies
the contributions within this volume reflect this nuanced juxtaposition.
the collection features eight chapters dedicated to lviv, contrasted with four chapters focusing on wrocław. these chapters address topics specific to each city and are firmly grounded in their respective historical scholarship. the volume does not assume that lviv and wrocław inherently form a privileged comparative pair for the specific subjects explored in individual chapters.
the arrangement of the thirteen chapters generally follows a chronological order, though not strictly. where chronological order is intentionally disrupted, it serves to highlight connections between contributions that tackle similar themes or employ comparable source materials and methodologies.
historically, scholars have rightly prioritized the study of the increasingly brutal realities of modern imperialism, national antagonisms, totalitarianism, and warfare, and their profound impact on these two east-central european cities.
the initial chapter, authored by robert pyrah, situates the reader within this rich historiographical landscape. the emphasis on local urban history effectively redirects attention to the less frequently explored question of how individuals living in or passing through lviv and wrocław made sense of their pasts.
it investigates how they shaped and experienced these histories, particularly through migration or displacement, and how they continue to remember and narrate them to the present day.
the initial chapters of the volume offer a chronological progression, with the first three focusing on lviv during the late imperial and interwar periods.
lviv, where the first headquarters of an influential agency were established in , had been a significant center for the international labor market for decades, solidifying its status as a hub of migration. it notably served as a destination for individuals fleeing pogroms in the russian empire during the 1880s and emerged as a principal center for the zionist movement and a departure point for emigration to palestine.
akin to other cities in east-central europe, lviv witnessed the emergence of conflicting strategies—assimilation, zionism, and communism—as responses to escalating anti-semitism and the impending dissolution of the habsburg monarchy. concurrently, the chapter highlights a specific aspect of lviv: the persistent and deep-rooted local urban identity among its jewish population, an identity that endured into the interwar period.
the tension between transience and enduring urban continuity, a characteristic feature of the cities examined in this book, is further explored in the third chapter by oksana vynnk.
shifting the focus to the interwar period, oksana vynnk's contribution examines disabled war veterans who found themselves in post-world war i lviv.
by this time, the city was part of the second polish republic. the traditionally multi-ethnic character of the city and its region was deeply affected by the antagonistic polish-ukrainian and polish-soviet wars that followed world war i. nevertheless, the shared experience of inadequate welfare provisions for the injured transcended the pronounced national divisions, even as socio-economic solidarity in this regard often coincided with rising anti-semitism.
during and in the aftermath of world war ii, the multi-ethnic encounters in lviv and wrocław were not merely a shared heritage but, to a degree, a continuing reality on the ground.
this persisted despite extensive wartime population shifts and post-war forced mass migrations. memoirs offer testament to encounters that were more complex than pervasive hostility, characterized also by a shared experience of loss, suffering, and war, as well as by the reality of albeit temporary co-existence.
in lviv, the traditional multi-ethnic dynamic was subjected to a novel and external influence following the first soviet occupation of the city from to . this led to new societal fault lines, extending beyond the increasingly institutionalized ethno-linguistic divisions.
a critical criterion for evaluating cultural production during this period was whether performers aligned with the soviet agenda and embraced a new distinction between entertainment and politically instructive "highbrow" theater.
peculiarly, this aspect often remains in the background, overshadowed by the legacy of empire and the polish-ukrainian conflict. to address this specific gap, the chapter by sofia dyak examines the early period of sovietization from to . it analyzes lesser-known travelogues by soviet russian writers viktor shklovsky and yevgeny petrov, alongside soviet architectural literature from to , which sought to reimagine the distinctly non-soviet pre-war lviv as a future soviet ukrainian city.
the complex process of cultural appropriation and its inherent difficulties is also the subject of the subsequent chapter.
mikołaj kunicki analyzes films from the late 1950s to the early 1970s that were made in or about wrocław. these films frequently portray wrocław as a dark or unsettling place, suggesting that the endeavor to integrate the upper silesian metropolis into the communist polish state remained a challenging and contradictory undertaking.
while administrative, economic, and demographic integration progressed rapidly, grappling with the city's and the region's historical legacies was initially often elusive or met with silence. the relationship between the physical urban environment and the historical narratives it embodied remained a significant concern in lviv as well, although its treatment differed.
reimagining identity in the post-communist era
the late and post-communist eras witnessed a resurgence of interest in urban localism, a sentiment that could, in fact, resonate more strongly than newly established national identities in poland or ukraine.
uilleam blacker illustrates this with reference to the literary performance group bu-ba-bu, which gained prominence in post-ukrainian lviv. following world war ii, wrocław and lviv became home to substantial numbers of new residents, who, along with their descendants, had to forge their own local identities.
halyna bodnar continues this line of inquiry with a focus on lviv, examining the post-war influx of ukrainians and other soviet citizens and their memories—or lack thereof—of the city's pre-war polish and jewish populations.
this study is grounded in extensive qualitative interviews with contemporary residents of various generations living in a historic street in the city center.
barbara pabjan employs a similar approach to explore local urban identity and memory in contemporary wrocław. her work contrasts with recent official and commercial representations of the urban space and the active engagement with its diverse historical legacies. katarzyna kotyńska's research on contemporary lviv reveals a multifaceted inclination to leverage the city's multicultural past within popular culture, the tourism industry, and city promotion efforts.
this fosters a polyphony of discourses, one political, emphasizing post-national independence, and others reviving a partly imagined and nostalgic, a-national, multi-ethnic past.
a comparable tension emerges in ewa sidorenko's chapter, which scrutinizes the development and execution of a project in wrocław.
initially, the project encountered some resistance from participating young wrocław residents, but it ultimately succeeded in opening up the urban space to a more inclusive examination of the significance of memory and forgetting. consequently, rather than presenting a strictly comparative study, this book maps convergent processes and outcomes within east-central european local and urban histories.
it is important to acknowledge the cataclysmic events that people in both locales endured, including nazism, war, occupation, expulsion, and totalitarianism. equally inappropriate would be to approach the history of wrocław and lviv with a sense of nostalgia that risks revisionism.
the contributions in this volume place the two cities at the forefront in a distinct manner, shifting the scholarly focus to their residents and transient populations, and investigating how people experienced and shaped the histories of wrocław and lviv beyond overarching categories such as nationhood, statehood, and socioeconomic order.
the afterword by jacek purchla offers a concluding, summative reflection on the aims and approaches adopted by the contributors to this volume.
beyond their primary objective of providing fresh scholarly insights and perspectives, it is hoped that this work will also contribute to a deeper historical understanding and, by extension, to cross-border reconciliation. in this spirit, it is noteworthy that throughout the volume, places, including the two cities under discussion, are generally referred to by their currently accepted international names: lviv and wrocław.
instances where other names are used are intended to clarify historical contrasts within specific contexts and do not imply any politicized interpretations of those names.
the immediate aftermath of world war ii saw significant population transfers, with many immigrants from the eastern territories, including lviv's professoriate and artists, resettling in wrocław.
lviv, or lwów in polish and lemberg in german, was historically a borderland town. following its acquisition by casimir the great in and through the period of habsburg rule during the partitions of poland, its population, while mixed and fluctuating, predominantly identified as polish by the 19th century.
the control exerted by polish elites persisted even under habsburg administration, particularly after the decentralization of dynastic rule following the ausgleich. the notion of a literal reading of the lviv-wrocław parallel fails to account for its rhetorical and structural impact, as well as the emotional imperative it evidently fulfills for the enduring, albeit spectral, presence of lwów in contemporary poland.
this parallel is significant because lviv served as the near-axiomatic "piedmont" for each national cause.
for ukrainians, it was where crucial institutions took root in the 19th century, providing a framework for the development and expression of national consciousness. for poles, it represented a location with less repressive rule during the period of partition, fostering, for example, a freer press.
what is perhaps surprising is that despite a burgeoning body of academic literature on each city individually, there has been remarkably little comparative, critical work undertaken on both. this analysis begins by examining parallels in their 20th-century histories from prevailing polish and ukrainian perspectives, viewed through the lens of how historians and elites, possessing control over local institutional channels, have constructed these narratives.
various discussions regarding this parallel canon and competing claims can be found in scholarly works dedicated to the cities.
the author then aims to shed light on instructive differences in detail, both within and beyond these apparent structural similarities. this is not intended as a comprehensive historiographical survey, as aspects of this are addressed elsewhere; rather, it serves as a catalyst for further investigation and a conceptual provocation.
for instance, a narrow focus on place presupposes a broader political context, including the politics of history and its implications for bilateral relations between the countries in question. historical revisionism in central europe after presents a pertinent example of such discussions.
the case of the jewish population, by far the largest minority in each city until , presents a further complicating factor in understanding perceptions of place from these national viewpoints.
by definition, this is a complex and polyphonic discourse, encompassing views from israel and ongoing or re-established local communities, thus meriting separate study. this essay limits itself to aspects derived from, and to some extent shared between, the dominant national historiographies for lviv and wrocław.
the approach to jewish populations or jewish heritage, past and present, in turn, reflects national constructions of place. notwithstanding any enduring popular animosities, controversies have also occasionally resurfaced at the official level.
in essence, historiographical claims concerning lviv face equally strong and opposing forces, whereas wrocław exhibits ambivalence on the polish side and reticence on the german.
this "taboo" has gradually been lifted, with a range of works emerging in german that vary in tone from analytical to nostalgic. significant scholarly works have been produced on the history of the german minority in poland, particularly concerning wrocław, and on the history of the ukrainian population in lviv.
these works are often tonally similar, reflecting themes of loss on one hand and gain on the other. however, there is nothing as explicitly dedicated to a particular month or period, as seen in the "lwów month" reference, within the official discourse for wrocław. the german past is, of course, a component of this narrative, but it is not discussed with any distinct emphasis.
the narrative of "how breslau became wrocław during the century of expulsions" highlights a transformation that is emblematic of broader post-war demographic and political shifts.
this impression is often conveyed by officially commissioned volumes, such as "microcosm: portrait of a central european city," which symbolically frames its subject. these cities actively assert their claims to their heritage through the narrative efforts of their city councils and historians, as well as through large-scale cultural initiatives like the european capital of culture (esk) and events such as the european football championship, which included matches in both wrocław and lviv.
additional smaller-scale events also contribute locally.
the engagement with jewish heritage provides a salient example, though it represents a complex case extending beyond the scope of this particular essay. nonetheless, a highly visible, official, and illustrative instance can be cited: the rehabilitation of significant central synagogue sites in each city.
architecture, public space, and politics in the galician capital offer a framework for understanding these urban transformations. while efforts to restore jewish heritage in western ukraine have been markedly slower and of a specific character for a range of reasons, occasional controversies over historical or alleged polish anti-semitism have nevertheless surfaced.
at least three sites in lviv were in various stages of rehabilitation at the time of writing, including memorials conserving the remains of the golden rose synagogue, commemorating the site of the former beth hamidrash building, and planning for a commemoration on the site of the former great city synagogue.
local identities and divergent historical pathways
deeper divergences, beyond the parallel application of national frames of reference for public identity construction during and after communism, become apparent at the micro-level in both cities.
the overwhelming tendency in mixed marriages was to make a strategic choice of ethnic group and adhere to the associated cultural practices, language of instruction, and religious affiliation for children. this was not the case in wrocław. in short, ethnicity in lviv remained subject to careful demarcation and separation.
while drawing broad conclusions from isolated cases is challenging, the very existence of such stark differences underscores significant divergences in detail that lie beyond structural parallels.
to be sure, these are not identical cultural contexts, and the studies in question examined historical minorities with different social weight.
for instance, there are several thousand poles in lviv, whereas wrocław has only a few hundred germans, despite the cities being comparable in size. in other words, the content and framing of history are salient and varied. these findings are consistent with those of psychologist maria lewicka, who, based on interview material, concluded that collective memory exhibited a strong ethnic bias in both cities.
however, the underlying mechanisms differed: predictors of this bias were national identity in lviv and demographic variables such as age and a lack of place identity in wrocław. the city was constructed as a national symbol in lviv, whereas in wrocław, it was framed as an autonomous entity.
as previously mentioned, sentiments towards wrocław from both polish and german perspectives, albeit for distinct reasons, are relatively subdued in their expression within the historical canon.
for instance, contrast the constructed claim to recovered territories with the passionately held and long-standing rival polish and ukrainian claims to lviv. rhetoric surrounding wrocław during the communist era may have sounded assertive, but it was consistently undermined by a sense of impermanence among its polish residents, a sentiment that, across the region, gave rise to the phenomenon of so-called "unwanted towns." in contrast, rhetoric concerning lviv mirrored long-standing rivalries asserted through conflict, albeit not always defined by modern notions of nationality, which was subsequently codified into oral and cultural memory within families and their respective national canons.
the framing of the past in lviv tends instead to reinforce a ukrainian narrative, primarily by attributing any European prestige specifically to the national identity, presented within the context of the city as a crucible of that nation.
the city council, for example, boldly proclaims that "lviv has always been the most civilized European city in ukraine, and can even measure up to europe itself." furthermore, it is asserted that "anything and everything could be done in lviv—the very first, the best, the biggest, the most progressive written works, publications, constructions, inventions, or creations." while the question of whether these claims are entirely accurate may be somewhat redundant, the broader point regarding any perceived parallels between their 20th-century fates is that they are significantly different in their substance.
that said, there is nascent evidence that official approaches to city identity, employing historical narratives, have not entirely excluded alternative vectors, particularly the possibility of defining the city beyond national categories altogether, despite the efforts of those who control official channels.
in essence, this is an argument for recognizing place on its own terms.
however, the responses gathered were few in number and typically came from intellectuals or individuals working in the media, suggesting they might be more open to questioning national categories through exposure, if not by inherent disposition. moreover, these responses provide pause for reflection when considering the broad generalizations often applied to large-scale events in east-central europe, especially from a western perspective.
for this reason, collected volumes are well-suited for comparative historical subjects such as the one under examination, where individual authors might struggle to cover the full spectrum of necessary information to produce a truly integrative history.
the general histories of these cities are by now widely known through scholarship published in several languages, and particularly in the case of wrocław, through accessible historical accounts available in mainstream bookstores.
migration patterns and the search for opportunity
the landscape of cities was teeming with employment agencies, travel bureaus, and shops offering a vast array of goods designed to equip the intrepid migrant for work abroad.
polish and ruthenian peasants, alongside their jewish neighbors, frequented these establishments in search of information about overseas employment, to obtain necessary travel documents, and to purchase rail and steamer tickets. north german lloyd bremen firm opened its doors adjacent to the hamburg-america line, and just around the corner, goldlust and company held exclusive rights to book passage on austro-american steamers departing from trieste.
goldlust i spółka, selling tickets for the austro-american line out of trieste, was situated on the adjacent street.
fraud, corruption, and abuse were rampant in this unfettered environment of emigration. peasant leaders, landowning gentry, galician officials, and the clergy all called for government protection to safeguard vulnerable austrian subjects undertaking journeys to foreign shores.
not far from the bustling world of the railway district rose the imposing columns of the provincial parliament building, the galician sejm, whose elected representatives were also preoccupied with the surge in labor migration. despite new regulations limiting eligibility for departure and enforcing stricter border controls, these measures did little to stem the flow of migrants.
the authorities believed that if they could curtail the influence of unscrupulous individuals, they might be able to slow the tide of people leaving the empire.
governments across the region imposed travel restrictions even during the so-called "golden era" of human movement preceding the first world war.
caro would later document the rates and implications of peasant migration in his work. however, the pressure within peasant communities to seek employment abroad persisted, driven by factors such as rural overpopulation, land shortages, high levels of indebtedness, crop failures, and the absence of local industry.
beginning in the 1880s and continuing until the outbreak of the first world war, the austrian reichsrat and the galician sejm enacted numerous legal restrictions on the activities of travel agents and ticket sellers. by , these efforts culminated in the establishment of a new, partially public association on the floor of the sejm: the polskie towarzystwo emigracyjne (pte), or polish emigration society, dedicated to overseeing migrants from the initial decision to leave home until their arrival at their destinations.
this chapter examines the efforts of the galician government to undermine the authority of informal agents by introducing an official migration society intended to absorb their activities.
this narrative recounts the story of the polskie towarzystwo emigracyjne. whether the pte ultimately improved the treatment of labor migrants remains unclear. the process of bringing labor migration under government control formalized a practice rooted in customary interactions and personal networks.
research suggests that galician travelers circumvented these increased restrictions and continued to engage with various migration facilitators, accessing official, unofficial, public, private, familial, and philanthropic connections to navigate their journeys.
over time, the pte itself adopted traditional practices, including forging documents, smuggling clients across borders, and employing subagents to circumvent imperial regulations.
peasant complaints regarding the new organization increasingly mirrored grievances lodged against private intermediaries, indicating little difference in the behavior of bureaucratic personnel and their local, private counterparts. ultimately, the galician government struggled to rationalize border control, highlighting the limitations of managing the free flow of human movement within an ostensibly liberal state.
for the majority of its history, the habsburg state made minimal efforts to restrict the free movement of people across its borders, despite rigorous monitoring of internal migration.
until the final quarter of the 19th century, this provision was rarely challenged. in the lviv region, most migration remained local and seasonal, with the city itself attracting a significant number of rural migrants towards the end of the century. the pace of this transatlantic resettlement remained steady, increasing to approximately 1, individuals per year by , predominantly adult men heading to south america, with a few hundred venturing to the united states.
this rate tripled in the 1890s, with an average of 5, galicians leaving the crownland annually and over 67, departing within the decade from to . concurrently, the prairies of canada began to attract laborers from galicia. in total, between and , galicia experienced a loss of nearly 1, people due to migration.
informal agents were ubiquitous between lviv and the western border of galicia, which served as the preferred route for those wishing to leave the state undetected.
travelers from the lviv area generally proceeded west, crossing into prussia and then onward to the port cities of bremen, hamburg, or rotterdam. most avoided trieste, the sole port within habsburg territory, due to the stringent border controls imposed on travelers prior to embarkation.
navigating the land border from galicia into prussian silesia presented the most significant challenge of the journey, and migrants devised numerous strategies to evade detection. informal agents maintained contacts throughout the region to assist their clients in traversing the rugged sub-carpathian terrain.
prospective migrants typically approached from the south, traveling through the carpathian foothills of nowy sącz, żywiec, or biała, rather than utilizing the northern route from central galicia.
they were advised to avoid cracow and its podgórze suburb, circling the area on foot because provincial emigrants were frequently recognized by authorities in these heavily patrolled urban centers. once past podgórze, migrants might travel by cart to the small hamlet of zabierzów, and from there, take a train to the small town of chełmek.
it was crucial for undocumented migrants to cross the border into prussia on foot; consequently, they were instructed to disembark the train and walk to the dwory station, where, for a fee of approximately nine złoty in , a contact would guide them across.
local experts familiar with the terrain and its associated risks would then direct the migrant safely from one station to the next within this clandestine network of illicit movement.
in biała, stanisław kruszewski is noted to have served as a guide. in radocza, north of wadowice, wojciech zieliński would likely conduct travelers to the border, where marek kmicki or his assistant jakob kęska would personally escort them into prussia. alternatively, migrants could seek the services of władysław zając in tuchów.
perhaps the riskiest option of all was to utilize the services of maria przeszczbowska in nowy targ. although przeszczbowska was willing to escort travelers all the way through kalwaria to wadowice and across the border itself, she was known to charge exorbitant prices for this service.
pałka regularly accompanied individuals from kalwaria and cracow personally, and was reputed to provide sound advice regarding the border crossing.
the infamous wadowice trial of , involving sixty-five jewish travel agents in the west galician border town of oświęcim, helped solidify the stereotype of the corrupt and dishonest jewish handler intent on defrauding impoverished peasants of their last grosz.
the primary agent for the austro-american shipping line was goldlust and company, whose lviv offices were staffed entirely by jews. even regional travel bureaus, such as that operated by jadwiga kronhelm, which arranged transport on the hamburg-america line in trzebinia, employed mainly jewish subagents, including one dawid kupermann.
gazeta lwowska, the official newspaper of the galician autonomous administration, complained about the profits made by jewish kantors (currency exchangers) on funds sent from america back to galicia. ticket agents, steamer companies, money changers, and even those who wrote correspondence for illiterate peasants seeking travel information—all were viewed with suspicion for facilitating the exodus of residents from the crownland.
the customary nature of these interactions, stemming from long-standing relationships in the countryside, may explain why a request from the governor general of lviv, asking all district governors about migration agitators in their regions, was largely met with negative responses.
the pace of departures accelerated in the early years of the 20th century as ruthenian peasants bound for canada joined their polish compatriots. in total, over three-quarters of a million residents left galicia between and . this number, however, did not significantly deplete the crownland's total population, which grew from 6.
for peasant migrants, a sojourn abroad, whether temporary or permanent, provided crucial support for the family farm, introducing a measure of financial stability into the otherwise precarious existence of family farmers. american dollars, german marks, or french francs enabled peasants to construct houses, repair parishes, pay for schools, purchase arable land, establish dowries, or buy out inheritance shares from siblings.
from the perspective of many impoverished families, migration represented a net positive.
sejm deputy and economist leopold caro contended that local economies suffered when entire villages relocated. in the early years of transatlantic migration, roman catholic polish speakers departed the crownland in significantly larger numbers than their ruthenian neighbors.
this imbalanced exodus threatened to disrupt the power dynamics between poles and ruthenians. in alone, conscription-aged men bound for the border were detained in cracow. the crownland found itself short 80,000 men in the annual call-up in , the majority of whom had emigrated. police arrested an average of ten illegal migrants per day at the cracow train station in october , most of them laborers from further east, heading towards the border with prussia.
warnings issued by various authorities about the high cost of living in large cities, inadequate wages, and the impossibility of finding permanent employment were largely disregarded, as the pace of migration continued to accelerate.
the u.s. immigration service initially required immigrants to possess a minimum amount of money to prevent them from becoming public charges.
the INS later rescinded this requirement, but immigration service officers retained the authority to exclude individuals who, in their judgment, were unable to support themselves and their families. the governor general refocused his anti-migration campaign on postal clerks, instructing them to intercept correspondence from previous emigrants to prevent letters from containing positive descriptions of life abroad that might encourage further migration.
some officials even visited the homes of prospective migrants or confiscated tickets mailed to them. other local administrators imposed additional military taxes on male children or threatened them with arrest if they attempted to leave. the starosta in pilzno, ropczyce, and tarnów began simply refusing to issue passports to peasant migrants, forcing laborers to sneak out of the province clandestinely and thereby increasing the demand for illegal migration agents to escort them.
debates arose pitting large landowners against peasant deputies recently elected to the sejm, with the latter emphasizing the critical role of labor migration in supporting rural families.
the resolution to this impasse came in january with the creation of a government-sponsored association to monitor population movement out of the crownland. in , the sejm established an official employment bureau based in lviv, with offices in 23 other cities and towns, to assist workers in finding employment both domestically and abroad.
however, after three years of operation, a disappointingly low number of workers utilized its services. of the 63, positions advertised by the bureau, fewer than half (26,) were filled. the remaining positions appear to have been for agricultural work within galicia itself or in germany—roles that were low-paying and prone to frequent abuse by landlords.
the PTE soon encountered similar challenges.
in its capacity as a protector of peasant migrants, the society launched a series of virulent attacks on competing associations. director józef okołowicz utilized his new journal, polski przegląd emigracyjny, to accuse the humanitarian association, opatrzność (providence), of selling steamer tickets through subagents and paying commissions, activities for which it was not officially licensed.
the government subsequently shut down opatrzność. complaints regarding inflated ticket prices, poor travel conditions, and false advertising directed at the PTE itself began to pour in less than three years after the society opened its doors. police in lviv and cracow initially grew suspicious of the association after receiving a letter from adolf nowicki, a nineteen-year-old from the village of szmańkowice, complaining about being overcharged for steamer and rail tickets at the PTE offices.
he described how fellow travelers informed him that he had paid crowns too much for his ticket.
the PTE had very quickly adopted the practices of an informal migration agency, subjecting its clients to inaccurate information, rudimentary travel conditions, and prolonged waiting periods.
workers from knichynin, stanisławów district, for example, complained of sleeping on bare floors at the PTE headquarters while waiting fruitlessly for labor contracts, eventually resorting to other agencies to find work abroad. migrants faced unsanitary conditions and inflated prices in port cities and encountered disappointment upon their arrival.
nonetheless, the association remained popular, and its offices received dozens of letters daily from migrants desperate for assistance in crossing the increasingly stringent border controls. ultimately, it was the very normalization of the PTE's practices that led to its indictment.
as the habsburg imperial government instituted increasingly rigorous controls on its borders in the months leading up to the first world war, desperate galicians intensified their search for an exit.
bina rosman, lacking a passport, wished to travel to america to join her husband. stanisław rutkowski lacked travel funds but requested sponsorship from someone in brazil, a violation of restrictions on indentured servitude. although established partly at the behest of the galician authorities in lviv, the PTE rapidly became more responsive to the financial interests of its founders and the needs of its clients than to the legal structures it was designed to uphold.
created as an unfunded offshoot of the government, the PTE ultimately became the target of official challenges for its transgressions. it regularly engaged in illegal forms of advertising, employed subagents to sell steamer tickets and paid them substantial commissions, and transported men of draft age across international frontiers.
the imperial state, during a period of escalating military demands and anxiety about population loss, progressively tightened requirements for crossing international borders.
as the state formalized procedures for population movement, the people themselves continued to maneuver around each new regulation. bureaucratization, formalization, and the institutionalization of migration networks had minimal impact on the behavior of labor migrants.
the peasants simply devised increasingly ingenious ways to "vote with their feet." as imperial bureaucracy generated further bureaucratic mechanisms to oversee existing agencies, the population of galicia resisted restrictions on its freedom of movement. by making claims on the PTE that aligned with their customary use of migration guides, migrants compelled the agency to adopt techniques that challenged the very government to which it owed its existence.
the brief history of the polskie towarzystwo emigracyjne demonstrates how imperial bureaucracy often integrated the informal patterns it was intended to replace.
social currents and evolving identities
transatlantic travel in the early 20th century was inherently risky and uncomfortable.
complaints submitted to migration societies like the PTE offer a glimpse into this process, revealing the fears and anxieties experienced by many transplanted families. the PTE case underscores the fragility of the migrant experience and the central role of lviv within this experience.
simultaneously, it marks the transformation of an official agency into a traditional migration entity willing to contravene state law to serve its clients. finally, it demonstrates the tendency of peasant migrants to look beyond the provincial capital to advance their own interests and aspirations.
one of the phenomena observed, such as the assimilation and emancipation of jews, can be considered universal, as these were not unique to lviv but occurred in other centers of the habsburg monarchy and europe.
however, both assimilation and emancipation, along with other social and political currents, possessed a distinct local character shaped by the city's unique position. the uniqueness of lviv was particularly evident in the case of zionism. lviv's significance as a major center of the zionist movement in central europe was not solely due to its demographic size but also its proximity to east galicia.
furthermore, its academic character, where jewish intellectual elites received their education, played a role. the city's location on trade routes leading to two important black sea ports, odessa and constantța in romania, which were strategically vital for jewish migration to eretz israel, constituted another contributing factor.
lviv itself did not play a substantial role in the jewish labor movement, as there was an insufficient jewish working-class population. therefore, from the perspective of jewish history during the analyzed period, lviv should be viewed as a city of considerable, but not paramount, importance—a city of the second rank.
metropolises such as london, berlin, or paris were undeniably more significant.
on the other hand, concerning the broader comparative context, lviv's geopolitical location was highly significant. situated at the intersection of two strategic trade routes since the middle ages, it later bifurcated into routes leading north to moscow and st.
petersburg, and southeast, encompassing the black sea coast, caucasus, and the caspian sea region. by the end of the modern era, lviv's geopolitical importance waned. following political and military shifts and changes in national borders, traders from distant lands began to avoid the city.
nevertheless, lviv remained open to newcomers and cultural influences, most notably reflected in its cuisine and language, and it continued to play a role in trade. it maintained particularly intense relations with cities in hungary and the balkans, which is understandable given that hungary, under the crown of saint stephen, was also part of the habsburg monarchy.
above all, lviv remained a city at the confluence of diverse cultures and political influences.
lviv was often described as "half-asian" (german: halb-asien), showcasing influences from both the east and the west. during the period under examination, austrian and russian influences vied for prominence around the city.
in the era of autonomous galicia, poles and ukrainians aspired to be recognized as the principal inhabitants of lviv, and the national mosaic was further enriched by jews, germans, russians, and armenians. the city was thus steeped in rivalry, and at times confrontation, between different nations, primarily poles, ukrainians, and jews.
eastern galicia became a stage for escalating conflict, as poles and ukrainians pursued their national aspirations, frequently clashing with each other. lviv also maintained particularly dynamic relations with vienna. one reason for this was that, as the capital of galicia, lviv had extensive ties with vienna, the political, scientific, and cultural heart of the empire.
politicians, military figures, scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs visited lviv far more frequently than other cities in the province. jewish politicians from lviv were highly active in vienna. often facing rejection from polish-dominated city councils and provincial authorities, they sought to resolve their issues in the state capital.
while in the first half of the 19th century, jews were inclined towards assimilation into german culture, by the end of the century, they reoriented themselves towards polish culture. this shift was influenced by various factors, including the introduction of galician autonomy and the process of repolonization in the city and the province during the 1870s.
many influential and non-assimilated austrian germans departed the city. poles, to a considerable extent, assumed power over the province and the city. in these circumstances, germanized jews lost their patrons, and the further propagation of german culture ceased to be economically viable.
nevertheless, vienna's cultural and political influence in lviv persisted and remained stronger than in cracow, impacting not only jews but also poles.
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